Gulf Cease-Fire in Effect; U.N. Team on Patrol

The formal cease-fire in the bloody, costly eight-year war between Iraq and Iran went into effect at 7 a.m. local time today (8 p.m. PDT Friday), and U.N. officials were optimistic that it would hold at least temporarily.

U.N. truce observers were in place on both sides of the 740-mile border between Iraq and Iran to monitor any violations. And because both sides in the long conflict have observed a virtual truce since the cease-fire agreement was announced Aug. 8, hopes were high that no serious violations would occur.

If the Iraqis and Iranians do abide by the armistice, attention will shift to Geneva, where the two sides are scheduled to meet Thursday to begin negotiations under U.N. auspices for a permanent peace accord. Diplomats here predict that tough bargaining will be required before full agreement is reached to end a war that has claimed an estimated 1 million lives.

350 Supervisory Officers

The U.N. cease-fire team on the frontier--known officially as the U.N. Iran-Iraq Military Observers Group, or UNIIMOG--is made up of 350 supervisory officers, with a backup force of more than 1,000 civilian and military communications and logistics specialists.

They come from 24 nations and are under the command of Maj. Gen. Slavko Jovic of Yugoslavia. Jovic himself flew into Baghdad on Wednesday with 11 Yugoslav officers; the group later went on to Iran. Jovic said he is “optimistic” about the outcome of the cease-fire.

The UNIIMOG commander will shuttle between the warring countries in a plane provided by Switzerland. Brig. Gen. V. M. Patil of India heads the group of U.N. observers here in Iraq, and an Irish officer, whose name has not yet been announced, will head the group in Iran.

The United States was not called on to provide officers for the force of observers. But huge U.S. Air Force transport planes have been flying communications equipment into Baghdad for a 485-member Canadian communications group that will handle contacts among the front-line observers and UNIIMOG headquarters in Baghdad and Tehran.

Greeted With Rose Petals

Observer patrols, each consisting of four officers in two vehicles, fanned out along the border early today. All patrol members wore the blue berets that identifies them as part of a U.N. force, and women dressed in traditional Arab robes threw flower petals in their path as their vehicles left Baghdad.

The patrols concentrated on the southern front, an area of marshlands and oil fields that was the scene of the heaviest fighting in the war.

Sixty-seven of the observers on the Iraqi side will be operating out of Basra, the nation’s second-largest city, which suffered devastating damage during the fighting in the southern part of the country. Another 35 are based at Baqubah, north of Baghdad on the central front, while 35 others, with a base in Kirkuk, will cover the mountainous northern front.

Fighting Virtually Halted

Since today’s cease-fire date was first announced by U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, military operations on both sides have virtually ceased, save for a few claims and denials of random artillery shelling and violations of airspace.

That stand-down suggests to Western military specialists here in the Iraqi capital that both sides are exhausted from the conflict, which has cost an estimated $200 billion, according to the Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute.

Fighting began in the war on Sept. 22, 1980, when Iraqi troops invaded Iran in a dispute over the Shatt al Arab, an estuary formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The waterway, flowing into the Persian Gulf, marks the southern 150 miles of their common frontier.

During the period of the formal cease-fire, both sides are prohibited from gaining any military advantage, and right now Iraqi and Iranian forces are pretty much holding to the prewar frontier, with neither side occupying any important terrain of the other.

Still, hard issues remain to be thrashed out in Geneva--issues that could lead to renewed fighting if they are not resolved.

Perhaps chief among these is the exchange of prisoners. Iran holds an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Iraqi prisoners, including several thousand Egyptians who volunteered for service, and Iraq is reported to be holding 30,000 Iranians.

Other Issues Hanging Fire

Other issues to be resolved include defining war guilt, deciding on reparations and delineating borders.

As for citizens of Baghdad, they were elated by the cease-fire.

“Peace is wonderful,” said a young driver. “Three of my brothers were in the war, and one was killed by a mortar. I was supposed to enter the army in three months’ time. But now I don’t think I will have to go. At least, I won’t have to go to war.”